FIVE MINUTES WITH... ED GAMBLE

In the ultimate Taskmaster tournament, five all-star winners are going head-tohead to find out who is the Taskmaster Champion of Champions. We catch up with comedian Ed Gamble to see how he’s feeling about being in the running to be crowned the Taskmaster Champion of Champions.

TASKMASTER REALLY IS JUST A JOY, ISN’T IT?

I mean, it is the most joyous experience. Taskmaster, in general, is just like a shot of pure adrenaline into the veins. I love it.

I was very happy to get the opportunity to revisit it, even though it was just for a day of filming tasks and then one episode in the studios. It was amazing.

And the only sad thing is now I think I’ve exhausted every possibility to do the tasks and get into the studio. I’ve done a full series of 10 episodes, plus Champion of Champions. I don’t think there’s any way I can wangle my way back in.

Greg Davies already told me that the only way he’ll be replaced as Taskmaster is if he dies. So I’m basically waiting. I’m basically waiting for Greg.

WHAT CAN YOU TEASE ABOUT THE TASKS IN THIS EPISODE?

Well, look, they’re always all my favourite because I get to be involved and do them. But I’ll tell you, I had one task that was incredibly frustrating, but is an absolute pleasure to watch for everyone apart from me.

Also, I can tell you that I think my prize task in this is the one – out of all the prize tasks I’ve done, 11 I’ve done – that I’m proudest of. So there you go, you get the highs and the lows this episode from me.

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY?

I mean, it depends what sort of task it is. There’s some things that are, for example: throw something into this thing. And there’s a solid goal, so you just have to start going.

But it’s the creative ones that panic me the most – when you’ve actually got to come up with something from scratch. Panic tends to inform everything I do at that point – as shown by a lot of the results of the tasks. There’s an art task in this Champion of Champions that I think everyone pretty much panicked on and created some absolutely demented results.

So I think panic plays a big part, and then luck as well. Sometimes it just works out. I had a task in series 9 when we had to make a water feature and I panicked and turned Alex into a mermaid, and it just worked out perfectly. And then sometimes it’s an absolute disaster.

So yeah, if you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to do it. And sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.

WHO’S YOUR BIGGEST COMPETITION?

I think Kerry [Godliman] or Liza [Tarbuck], probably, I thought would be the biggest competition.

James Acaster, who was on Kerry’s series, says that they’re the best line up and that any one of them would have won any other series, which I do not think is true. But I do think it was quite a good line up in terms of competence, and the fact that Kerry won that shows that she is a real contender.

Liza is a wily one, and I think she has the great thing of not really caring and is also very competent. So those two I thought would probably be the biggest competition. Lou [Sanders] is mad and she’s one of the funniest comics out there, and on Taskmaster was brilliant.

Taskmaster Champion Of Champions, Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm.